Clothes dryer



Inf-M" May 5, 1959 Filed Aug. 30, 1956 E. H. SMITH I CLOTHES DRYER I 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

E. H. SMITH CLOTHES DRYER May 5, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 50, 1956 1 v INVENTOR. W9. M

United States Patent CLOTHES DRYER Ellwood H. Smith, Erie, Pa., assignor to Lovell Manufacturing Company, Erie, Pa., a'corporation of Pennsylvania Application August 30, 1956, Serial No. 607,125

3 Claims. (Cl. 34-133) This invention is a clothes dryer in which the drum has a cylindrical peripheral wall which is imperforate except for a narrow annular section surrounded by a housing which is sealed against the drum on each side of the perforated section. In a preferred form, air inlet and outlet connections are made to diagonally 0pposite portions of the housing, the inlet being, for example, at the bottom and the outlet at the top. The air circulation is obtained from a fan connected to a stove or heating chamber and to the ambient air. The inherent mixing obtained in the fan discharge reduces the temperature of the air entering the dryer to a safe value so that no scorching is obtained even when the air is blown into the bottom of the annular housing so it discharges directly against the clothes. The relatively high velocities obtained in the housing prevent lint accumulations.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a perspective of a dryer; Fig. 2 a sectional side elevation of the dryer; Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view showing a modification; Fig. 4 is a front elevation of the dryer chassis; Fig. 5 is a front elevation of a modification; Fig. 5a is a fragmentary perspective showing the air outlet connection for the Fig. 2 dryer; Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic view of the air circuit showing an electric heater, and Fig. 7 is a similar View with a gas heater.

In the drawing, 1 indicates a cabinet suitably mounted on a base 2 and having a door 3 at the front through which clothes are loaded and unloaded. Within the cabinet is a clothes receiving drum 4 having front and back end walls 5 and 6 and a cylindrical peripheral wall 7 connecting the end walls. The drum carries at its back wall 6 a shaft 8 journaled in a bearing 9 on a post 10 carried by the base 2 and rotated by a pulley 11 through a suitable drive, not shown. The front wall 5 of the drum has an opening 12 through which clothes are loaded and unloaded and around the opening 12 is a felt seal 13 which engages the front wall 5 between spaced collars 13a. When the door 3 is closed, the drum is imperforate except for a narrow annular section 14 in the cylindrical wall 7 midway between the end walls 5 and 6. Outside the perforate section 14 is an imperforate cylindrical band 15 having at opposite edges felt seals 16 cemented to the band and bearing on the cylindrical wall 7 of the drum at opposite sides of the perforate section 14. The band 15 has adjacent ends 18 which are urged together by springs 19. By this construction, the felt seals 16 are maintained in sealing engagement with wall 7 of the drum. From one aspect, the springs 19 provide take up for wear.

As shown in Fig. 3, the peripheral wall 7a of the drum may have annular channels 16a receiving the inner edges of felt seals 16b andthe band 15a may have opposed channels 17 in which are cemented the outer edges of the felt seals 16b. The channels 16a and 17 in addition to locating the felt seals stiffen both the band 15 and the wall 7a and hold those parts to a true cylindrical shape. The band 15a can be spaced very closely to theperforate section 14, for example, by indented sections 15b.

The inlet for heated air for drying the clothes is through a duct 20 connected to the band 15 in a lower right hand quadrant viewed from the front of the dryer. Rotation of the drum in a clockwise direction causes the clothes to be lifted up to about point 21 and to fall diagonally across the drum toward duct 20. Since the duct 20 is of relatively small diameter, the clothes are continually falling or tumbling into a jet-like stream of heated air issuing from the duct 20. This secures good cantact between the heated air and the clothes essential for efficient drying. The outlet duct 22 for the moisture laden air is located in a fitting 22a mounted on the band between the felt seals 16 and an upper left hand quadrant as viewed from the front of the dryer over the opening 22b in the band 15 substantially at the region 21 at which the clothes begin to tumble away from the inner surface of the drum and to fall towards the inlet duct 20. This means that the outlet opening 22b is not blocked by clothes. The air from the outlet duct 22 may be discharged in any direction, for example, to a duct leading to an outside point or it may discharge through a lint catching filter or trap.

The heated air is fed to the inlet duct 20 from the discharge 23 of a double inlet fan or blower 24. The fan has an impeller 25 mounted on the shaft 26 of a motor 27 which also drives the drum through a pulley 28. One of the fan inlets 29 is connected to the ambient air and is sucked in through the inlet by blades 30 on the side of the impeller hub 31 adjacent the inlet 29.- The other fan inlet 32 is connected to a duct 33 containing a heating element 34 which may, for example, be an electric heating element or a 'gas stove or burner. The air sucked in through the duct 33 is heated by the heating element and is forced to the fan discharge by blades 35 on the side of the impeller hub 31 adjacent the fan inlet 32,. The air entering the fan inlet 32 is so hot that it would scorch the clothes if discharged directly against the clothes. The mixture of ambient air from the inlet 29 or from another source of lower temperature air is accordingly necessary if scorching is to be prevented. The impeller 25 functions as an effective mixer due to the inherent turbulence produced by the action of the blades 30 and 35. Accordingly, the air entering the fan discharge 35 is of uniform temperature with a lack of Stratification which could result in localized streams of air of temperature sufiiciently high to scorch the clothes.

It has been found that there is not tendency for lint to collect in the dryer or in the ducts connected to the dryer. Even when the discharge duct 22 is intentionally blocked with a filter so that lint will collect, as soon as the blocking is removed the lint is immediately blown out the discharge duct. No lint accumulates between the drum and the inner surface of the band 15. This may be due to the fact that there are no dead air spots which would give the lint a chance to settle.

By connecting a by-pass duct 36 either to the discharge duct 22 or to the band 15 at a point spaced from the inlet duct 20, it is possible to recirculate air from the dryer back to the vicinity of the inlet 29. This improves the drying efiiciency. Because of the suction at the inlet 29, there is no chance for lint to collect around the inside of the dryer cabinet 1. This is true even although the bypass duct 36 is not sealed directly to the fan inlet 29 as is the case of the duct 33.

In the modification of Figs. 5 and 7, the fan 37 discharges directly to the lower left hand quadrant of the band 15 and the outlet duct 38 is connected to the band 15 in the upper right hand quadrant in the same manner as the connection of the duct 22 in Fig. 5a so as to r 3 obtain the desired diagonal circulation of heated air through the tumbling clothes. The same double shaft extension motor 27 is used in the same location as in Fig. 6 with the impeller 39 connected to the shaft 26. The fan has only a single inlet 40 connected to a duct 41 in which is located the gas or electric heater 34. Ambient' air drawn into the duct 41 picks up the products of combustion if the heater is a gas burner and the mixing takes place in the fan casing 37 so the air discharged into the housing 15 is at a temperature low enough to prevent scorching of the clothes. The same drying action is present. The drum rotates counterclockwise as viewed in Fig. 5, and the clothes tumble diagonally from the upper right to lower left quadrants while the heated air flows diagonally from the lower left to upper right quadrants. This insures good contact between the heated air and the clothes essential for eflicient drying.

What is claimed as new is:

1. A clothes dryer comprising a drum supported for rotation on a horizontal axis, said drum having an axially extending cylindrical peripheral wall imperforate except for an annular perforated section occupying part of its axial length, an annular imperforate band outside the drum straddling and spaced radially vfrom said perforate section and sealed to the imperforate portion of said peripheral wall on each side of the perforate section, means holding said band in a stationary position with respect to the rotatable drum, and inlet and outlet ducts connected to said band at circumferentially spaced points.

2. A clothes dryer comprising a drum supported for rotation on a horizontal axis, said drum having end walls and a cylindrical peripheral wall extending between the 4 I and having annular channels in the imperforate portion at each side of the perforate section, an annular band outside the drum straddling and spaced radially from said perforate section and carrying felt seals riding in said channels, means holding said band in a stationary position with respect to the rotatable drum, and inlet and outlet ducts connected to said band at circumferentially spaced points.

3. A clothes dryer comprising a drum supported for rotation on a horizontal axis, said drum having end walls and a cylindrical peripheral wall connecting the end Walls, said cylindrical wall being imperforate except for an annular perforated section between the end walls and occupying part of the axial length of the drum, an annular band outside the drum straddling and spaced from said perforate section and sealed to the imperforate portion of said peripheral wall on each side of the perforate section, means holding said band in a stationary position with respect to the'rotatable drum, an inlet duct connected end walls, said cylindrical wall being imperforate except i for an annular perforated section intermediate the end walls and occupying part of the axial length of the drum to a lower quadrant of said band, an outlet duct connected to an upper quadrant of said band, a blower for forcing air into said inlet duct, and a heater for heating air flowing to the blower.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 658,957 Mey Oct. 2, 1900 2,222,139 Clark Nov. 19, 1940 2,264,646 Spears Dec. 2, 1941 2,503,448 Morris Apr. 11, 1950 2,764,820 Kautfman Oct. 2, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 575,139 France Apr. 16, 1924 

